Tag Archives: Constituional Crisis

Main oppsition leader Deniz Baykal urged Prime Minister Erdogan to admit his party’s mistke in attempting to impose Islamic law on the secular nation of Turkey. He insisted the move to have Turkey’s hgh court close down the Justice and Development Party on grounds it violates the nation’s law by seeking to end the secular nature of Turkey would be avoided if the AKP admitted it was wrong to move in this direction and promise not to impose Shariah law on the people of Turkey. Baykal said: “Tensions were ignited by the AKP under Erdogan’s leadership. We need to overcome this problem. We need a fresh start.” The current crisis arose when chief prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya asked the Constitutional Court to close down the AkP and ban its leaders from engaging in politics for five years.

Many members of the oppostion are still angry that Abduallah Gul was elected president of Turkey since he was one of the founders of the Muslim oriented AKP. They believe the presence of a known supporter of Islam as leader of their nation was a provocative action which was bound to divide the country into pro Islamic forces and those fighting for maintaining the secular nature of the nation.

The reality is that the only action taken by the AKP was to lift the ban on the wearing of headscarf that was imposed on Muslim women attending universities. Perhaps, it is time for President Gul to be more forceful by ensuring secularists of his desire to maintain secular institutions.